Providing for Consideration of H.R. Pay Our Homeland Defenders Act; Providing for Consideration of H. Res. Expressing the Support of the House of Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security; Providing for Consideration of H.R. Make the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Defending American Property Abroad Act of and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, the bill at issue in this rule today is not a serious legislative effort. It is, once again, political theater. It is a bill that has already been brought up several times and has gone nowhere.

This would be the third time, and the third time is not a charm. If I take a look at the definition of insanity, it is doing the same thing over and over again with the same outcome. This is madness, what we are engaged in here, and, yes, a waste of time.

Unlike the bill the Republicans have put forward, I have a measure that was introduced before the shutdown that actually has a good chance of becoming law if only Republican leadership would stop blocking it from receiving a vote.

They keep saying no to paying TSA employees. Understand this: 85 percent of ICE and CBP agents are already being paid, so what is the administration doing? They are picking and choosing whom they want to pay. They are holding these other employees hostage for political gain. They view it as a political strategy. They want to continue to fund lawless and rogue agencies.

What my bill would do is fund TSA, fund FEMA, fund the Coast Guard, cybersecurity, Secret Service, and other parts of the Department of Homeland Security, on which there was broad agreement.

Mr. Speaker, I have to just say, please, spare me your concern over Federal employees. Where were my Republican colleagues when this administration proposed eliminating FEMA entirely? Not a peep. Where were they when the President proposed cutting cybersecurity by $500 million? Not a peep. Where were they when the President unilaterally eliminated the collective bargaining rights for the TSA workers? They were silent. Where were they when Kristi Noem spent $20,000 to rent a horse so she could sit on the saddle of this horse for her political ads that were sanctioned by the President of the United States? Where were they when she spent $200 million of Coast Guard money for two luxury airlines?

Give me a break. They care not a whit about what is happening to Federal employees. Yes, they don't have a paycheck. Maybe if we didn't have a paycheck, we would treat this differently.

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, they think our constituents are going to forget that it has been 2 months removed since the murder of Alex Pretti. This administration hopes we are going to forget about the harassment, the violence, the chaos, simply because it is not much in the news anymore. Wrong.

These are our constituents, our communities. These protections are essential, but the Republican leadership is so opposed to any protection that they refuse to pay Federal workers.

If we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up my bill, H.R. 7481, so that Members can vote to fund the parts of DHS we all agree on without any of the controversial components we do not agree on.

I filed a discharge petition that would bring up my measure for a vote. I encourage my Republican colleagues to sign on. I know some of my Republican colleagues in the rank and file do not agree with what their leadership is doing. They hear from Federal workers, TSA agents, and constituents. They know there is no practical need to condition funding for TSA on funding for ICE. They understand we can continue to negotiate on immigration enforcement reform.

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Ms. DeLAURO. I invite my colleagues to join me. We can fund TSA, we can pay these workers, and we can do it today. We can end the long lines at airport security. We can continue to negotiate on ICE and CBP to find common ground on reforms that the vast majority of the American people support.

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